After years working abroad, first in Berlin, and later in San Diego, Nicolas Provart returned to Toronto full of ideas for how to improve the TTC. In 2002, he and a friend even put together a full-fledged marketing plan. After a month of figuring out costs, contacting suppliers, and coming up with ideas — including underwear emblazoned with TTC station names and slogans such as King, Queen, and Ride the Rocket (photo above) — the amateur transit boosters sent their plan off to the TTC.
"It landed in procurement," Provart says. He hasn't heard a peep from the commission since.
The reason, Provart later learned, is that the TTC was one year into a five year contract with Legacy Sports, a company based in Woodbridge that won the exclusive right to sell TTC merchandise, with the commission getting a 10% cut of the sales. But while the London Underground brings in a reported $3,424,000 from the sale of merchandise each year through its store and museum, Legacy's projected sales at the time they signed their contract were only $50,000 annually.
For many, however, the cash is a secondary concern (even $3 million dollars works out to be a sliver of the TTC's $1-billion-plus operation budget).
People wearing TTC T-shirts, and tourists bringing home TTC souvenirs help to promote Toronto's transit system. As the popularity of Spacing's subway station buttons demonstrate, many people have an unabashed affection for public transit and they want to wear it on their jacket or shoulder bag. It's this sort of sentiment Legacy has failed capture. Fortunately, the opportunity for change is growing near: Legacy's contract comes to an end this August.
"Our tentative plan at this point is to come out with a Request for Proposal and survey the marketplace and see who else might be out there who's interested in sending in a submission," says Alice Smith, active manager of TTC marketing.
It's unfortunate that few people know that Legacy's products exist. A link to their website — where you can view and purchase T-shirts, toques, pens, and bags, baby clothes that say "property of the TTC," baseball hats slapped with pictures of buses, and a host of other items — is tucked away on the TTC's website. They now have a location in Union Station that sells the merchandise year round. But even then the quality of the merch is questionable.
"Our main supporters have obviously been the TTC employees," explains the president of Legacy Sports, Rick Ferri. "[But] we're in the process right now of revamping our whole line." Their new focus, he says, will include "cute catch phrases" such as "Toronto Underground".
"Will your new line include station names?" I ask. "Possibly," Ferri says. "Those kind of things appeal more to the buff, the customer more concerned with the logistics of the TTC